Tesla drives Sustainability and Technology Metals for a home Tesla drives Sustainability and Technology Metals for a homerun, Uranium goes bull and Gold stocks rock again
Posted on March 3, 2014 by Tracy Weslosky
InvestorIntelReport Month-in-Review (February 2014): The Rare Earth Leaders Index (FTSE: REEL) closed at 313.83 February 28, 2014 — up +5.97% for the month. InvestorIntel Rare Earths & Technology Metal members up +17.91%, Graphite & Graphene up +13.58% and Cleantech also up +6.67% due to growing support for Environmental Waste International Inc. Comparatively global equities fared well, with both the MSCI world index up +4.81% and the S&P 500 index similarly rising +4.31% for the month of February 2014.
InvestorIntel Gold, Base & Precious Metals members up +20.46% with Carlisle Goldfields and Tinka Resources leading the pack. Uranium & Nuclear Energy +15.10% up as news around nuclear energy plans in Japan and China boost uranium prices for 2014.
Having spent the day at PDAC 2014 yesterday, which is unquestionably the largest resource conference in the world; the buzz on the floor was Tesla Motors. If Tesla shares soaring +619% in the last year and being the fastest growing automotive stock in at least two decades was not enough in itself, Tesla Motors announced last Wednesday in a story by the NY Times “…that it planned to invest about $2 billion in a large-scale factory to produce cheaper batteries for a mass-market electric car within three years.” Additional contributions of $3B from unnamed investors injected into the factory by 2020 makes this $5B deal a win-win for all of us involved in the electric car supply chain. This includes all of the graphite, lithium, and critical materials needed for the anticipated demand in Tesla and all of the other electric vehicle roll-out models we anticipate later this year. This makes it a good time for political leaders to join the House of Cards television audience and rally around issues of sustainability and critical materials.
Take Ucore Rare Metals Inc. for instance, who has been leading this charge with significant leadership support from the Alaska Government for their initiatives. Placing their check books firmly on the table towards insuring U.S. sustainability, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority has made steps to back up their commitment by placing under consideration the approval of up to $145 Million in long term bonds to finance Ucore’s Bokan-Dotson Ridge Project. Shareholders responded with a round of applause as Ucore’s patriotic shareholders saw shares rally with OTCQX: UURAF up +71.26% and TSXV: UCU up +58.18%.
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Alessandro Bruno recognizing this anticipated demand for graphite in electric cars at the onset of the week and wrote a story on the demand for materials required in lithium-ion batteries. Dr. Luc Duchesne responded favorably by taking the technologies around batteries future forward with an article titled — Graphene: the emergence of a new type of rechargeable battery. While batteries spiked our social media records this weekend, it was Star Minerals Group Ltd.’s CSE: SUV moving +180.00% this month that I congratulated Jim Engdahl at PDAC for. Cognizant that it is early days for Star Minerals, I must remind you that this was the same management team that literally built ‘share fans’ for Great Western Minerals Group in the early rare earth movement in 2009.
Started my morning by posting the interview with Simon Britt titled GeoMegA’s rare earth separation process and resource update catalyst for shareholder revelry. If you’re surprised by the term ‘revelry’ you may appreciate this more when you learn that Geomega Resources Inc.’s TSXV: GMA was up +117.24%.
Stans Energy Corp.’s OTCQX: HREEF up +35.96% and TSXV: HRE +27.27% after starting the month with an update on their international arbitration proceedings. Last week they announced Q3 2013 Financial Statements after confirming that they had been granted a special Russian technical export licence both on the 27th of February.
Peak Resources Ltd.’s ASX: PEK was up +39.29% for the month as new Managing Director Darren Townsend increases shareholder confidence and Alessandro makes a compelling case for Peak in his piece Tanzania has one of the highest grade rare earth deposits in the world.
I saw Matamec Explorations Inc.’s team on the floor at PDAC working hard and pressing the flesh with a good crowd at their booth yesterday. It is always with pleasure to see hard work paid off as Matamec’s OTCQX: MHREF +28.45% and TSXV: MAT +20.00% moves north yet again with news on their gold project and if you want an update on the compelling advantages of Matamec — check out this story: Matamec to gain from cooperation with Toyota and Quebec’s mining strategy.
A lot of growing interest in Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. as TSXV: ZEN moved up +28.42% and OTCQX: ZENYF was up +27.65% due to their hydrothermal graphite being confirmed as ‘special and rare’. On our site alone, the article Alessandro Bruno did about the Lakehead University study was the #1 most viewed article of the month.
We all know that Rare Element Resources Ltd. has been a stealth like player in the rare earths sector, and it was nice to see NYSE MKT: REE move up +12.58% and TSX: RES +11.18%. We have Randy Scott in our office on Wednesday morning for an interview so that we can get an update and share it with you.
Hastings Rare Metals Ltd. ASX: HAS moves up +11.11% again as the relatively new Chairman Charles Lew takes the helm of this well known heavy rare company. And then there is Mason Graphite Inc. whose stock continues to move north as TSXV: LLG is up +10.00% and OTCQX: MGPHF is up +8.70% as we receive regular updates on their new investment and associated financing with graphene player NanoXplore.
I would like to tell you that PDAC is a smashing success, but for the first time I can remember, you could still get a hotel room in Toronto the week before the event. One CEO confessed that there was a striking shortage of blue name tags, which indicate that a person is an investor; and that he had more sales people selling him than he had to sell. This said, our winter weather was the catalyst of what several investors from London told me was the reason that they were not attending after the BMO conference in Florida this last week. I asked a few more players what they saw, and many commented on a cautious optimism but said they are following the money, and the one consistent message is that raising capital is still very challenging for a resource exploration play.
Ran into 1 investor that I am aware is involved in overseeing the investment in a good solid 100+ companies and he confirmed that they were redirecting funds into technology and biotech. Rockstar (one of my market sources) and I spoke yesterday and he said the same thing that his team were heavy into tech and biotech – life sciences, animal sciences – and that “everything in the biotech world is going to go up 100%.” He went further stating that Biotech and Technology have the money for M&A, and follow the tech deals with big data storage, and related software – in other words, if you do not have your head in the “Cloud” Universe, it is time to do so. I did get him to agree that energy efficiency is good, but he said that Cleantech would not perform as vibrantly as the other techs, although he said he would not bid against Tesla as they were their own force to reckon with. Forecasts of course, are like opinions and seemingly everyone has one, so allow me to remind you that the rising tensions in Ukraine with the Russian military “settling in” as an occupying force in Ukraine will undoubtedly affect markets this week. And we all know what fear does…it drives gold.
Back to the floor at PDAC, and yes, Jack Lifton will be updating us from China this week via video and then he will be in Malaysia next week. If you want to see the numbers from February, the video features from or view the Top 10 most viewed articles on InvestorIntel, log-in to InvestorIntelReport, or click here to become a member.
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